Friday, November 14, 2008

A word about military discipline

One of the things that get extra emphasis when you go through military training is discipline, obeying orders. In Israel you are told that unless an order is "blatantly illegal" - you are to obey it without hesitations or protest. What falls under the "blatantly illegal" definition is usually exemplified by "what the Nazis did".

I think at this point in time it's worth commending every single soldier in the artillery corps in Israel, and around Gaza specifically, for managing to obey the orders given by their generals. I don't understand how they can do it, but they show great discipline. They see terrorists bombard the civilians of Ashkelon and Sderot, two cities in Israel and still do not pull the trigger to retaliate because they were ordered not to. To me, this order sounds like an order to have no emotion towards the civilian population you are supposed to protect. Or like an order to watch your family being murdered while you hold a gun to the murderer's head, and not to pull the trigger because you must maintain military discipline.

As a civilian, regardless of the fact that I no longer live in Israel, I can and most definitely do protest the idiocy of this order and question aloud the legitimacy of the government and generals who give such orders.

Why isn't the order to retaliate given?!

What kind of a criminal is sitting atop the Israeli government to order the military not to protect the civilians?!

This is how it looks like:
30 seconds after first alarm - a close by explosion, the family picks up the video cam and look for the smoke, which is nearby - as it hit the bus central station in Ashkelon - today:

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